Changing the tides: Co Down woman running Ireland’s first female-owned and led surfing school

“It was not an accident, it was definitely a focus to create a life like this because like many people, I was just living in a life I didn’t really enjoy or that was just handed down,” says Melanie.

“I wasn’t into going out, I felt really claustrophobic going out. So I went travelling by myself,” she explains.
Melanie ventured to Australia and New Zealand, among others and found lifestyles that were much more outdoors oriented.

“I would work as a chef or child minding or gardening or landscaping, the most random jobs, and then I would travel so it was very much the work was to fuel the fun and experiences,” she says of her decade away from Northern Ireland.

She was also surfing — having fallen in love with it in Easkey, Co Sligo — and noticed deep changes within her thanks to the discipline.

“It just shifted my attention and my focus onto something much healthier. I really liked it; it gave me a pathway that wasn’t there before. I was getting healthy, and I was travelling and my motivation for travelling was much deeper.”

Melanie returned to Ireland and realised the incredible surf environment the country was nurturing though 99% of the time she was the only female in the water.

“Then I moved over to the West Coast of Ireland,” she explains. “I’m really connected to this island. I trained myself as a lifeguard and surf instructor and I wanted to still be able to surf, not fall back into the rut I’d been in when I lived in Belfast.

“I wanted to not be a weekend visitor that just comes and surfs and goes back to a life they’re not enjoying.”

She quickly realised her aptitude for teaching.

“People would keep coming back because they were having quite big personal moments with themselves through their surfing and just getting these breaths of air they weren’t getting in their lives.

“I worked for a few years getting experience and then eventually I realised that my style of teaching was absolutely obscure compared to everybody else’s.”

Feedback suggested she was teaching incorrectly in some way but her approach was winning her support.

“My approach was really different and women particularly wanted me to teach them because before when they tried to learn to surf, they couldn’t but suddenly they were able to,” she says. “I ended up in my company, Rebelle Surf, because I was sick of being told I was doing it wrong.”

Since the closing of a Co Mayo surf school led by another woman, Rebelle Surf is the only surf school run by a woman and female focused, but which also offers lessons for men, children and families. Twice weekly she runs the Women’s Surf Series which she describes as ‘a beautiful thing’.

“Women tend to come every week for a year. People come through the school and the series and end up surfing by themselves. It’s absolutely phenomenal what happens, it just kind of evolved.”

Melanie’s aim remains to challenge and change perceptions of surfing as something exclusive to people who look a certain way.

“The biggest thing that used to drive me nuts about my own surfing experiences was this judgmental, egotistical, very much image-based, sculpted body nonsense and a certain type of way to surf which is very much quite aggressive,” she explains.

“If you look at a lot of professional surfers they’re hacking the waves. My style of surfing has very much been gliding with the waves and creating beautiful lines. It’s much more of a dance for me.

“There are days when I am more aggressive and that will come out in my surfing but I’m not inherently angry all the time so for me, my surfing is an expression of how I’m feeling and most of the time when I’m in the water I feel really good!”

She is frustrated by the sense of entitlement and ownership that the mainstream surf culture has tried to enforce on those involved.

“I’m not a size 8 at all, I’m a size 10-12 depending on the time of year,” laughs Melanie. “I don’t fit that mould and have a different motivation for getting in the water.

“Some of the best surfers I’ve seen come through my school are in their mid 50s and they’re so fired up these women, because they don’t give a sh*t and if they want to do something, they do it.

“I’ve had women in their 70s come and have a surf lesson. It’s something they’ve always wanted to do but they thought it’s only for really fit people, or it’s only for people of a certain weight or gender.

“By accident, I’m redefining what women’s surf culture is in Ireland. I’m not just going to take something that’s been handed to me that doesn’t feel right which is the blonde, bikini clad Roxy girl from Australia, who is also incredible.

“There’s no judgement. But we’re Irish: what is female surf culture for us? I’m at the forefront of that and absolutely loving that.”

For Melanie, the transformative effect of water is powerful.

“Don’t get me wrong: surfing is one of those challenging disciplines. It’s often the most frustrating, confronting thing you can do because you are absolutely faced with yourself.

“When your head is in the wrong place or you’ve got something going on, it’s very hard to surf because it requires complete presence and that’s why it’s so magical.

“If you want to surf, you have to fall into that groove of being completely present with yourself and connect it to the waves. That’s why it’s so powerful because you can’t help but not kind of fall into that.”

In August and September, Melanie is teaming up Kassia Meador, Leah Dawson, Makala Harmony Smith and the Salty Sensations crew from California. Suitable for advanced beginners, intermediate and advanced surfers, the retreats aim to improve surf skills with eco lodge accommodation, healing experiences and food included.

• For info on Salty Sensations and Women’s Surf Series, see rebellesurf.com/salty-sensations-ireland/ and rebellesurf.com/womens-surf-series/. Follow Melanie on Instagram @rebellesurf